Alpha King's Healer

14

"Someone I know?"

She nods slowly. Right as I was going to ask her more, commotion behind me draws both of our attention. A guard had ahold of a young peasant boy. He yelled at the boy, scolding him for trying to steal a loaf of bread. The young boy cried and pleaded, trying to defend his case. The guard did not care as he pulled the boy into the center of the pathway. Everyone had stepped aside at this point, creating a circle to watch the scene.

The large guard sets the kid's hand on a barrel, saying something about stealing and losing a hand. I look to Celeste's guards, who do nothing to stop the incident. They just stand there, watching.

I step forward to intervene, but the girl I was talking to grabs my arm to stop me.

"Don't get involved," she whispers.

"What did he do that's worth crippling the poor child?"

"The people are starving. We take chances, even though we know the outcome. We're desperate," she glances to the boy, before back to me. "And getting involved will only cause problems."

"You don't know that. I'm here with the King of Lodestar, I could help the boy. The guards might listen-"

"But I do know," she insisted. "You cannot change one's fate."

I stare at her in disbelief. How could being crippled be someone's fate? The girl nods her head towards the boy's parents, who I saw earlier selling fine shells to one of the vendors to try to get money. The boy's father shoved his way through the crowd, trying to pay the guard and spare his child pain. But, it was too late. They were going to punish the boy anyways as they pulled out a large, and rather sharp, blade.

"They have the money for the bread now, the boy just couldn't wait long enough. He probably hasn't had a meal in days," the girl whispers to me.

Then, I felt it. A sharp pain radiating over my entire body. I feel myself jerk towards the boy, who's scream echoed loudly. I wanted nothing more than to run to him, to help him, but the girl I was talking to quickly rushes around her stand, placing herself beside me. She starts pushing me towards Celeste and her guards.

"You need to go. You aren't safe. You shouldn't be here," the girl urged.

I couldn't understand why she would say I wasn't safe, until it happened. I felt another sharp pain. The boy's father. Killed in cold blood. The girl continued to shove me through the crowd furiously, who was starting to uproar in anger against the guards.

The working-class people, the vendors, were running away as large herds of peasant men and women were attacking the guards and the market customers. I felt pain everywhere, a deep aching throughout my entire body over and over again. It wasn't just a riot. It was a slaughter.

I turned to look for the dark-haired girl, but she was gone from the crowd. As I get shoved around, I quickly scan faces for Princess Celeste. She was being rushed towards our carriage by the king's guards. I chase after, running as fast as I possibly can while getting tossed around by fighting bodies.

Smoke. Blinding smoke. It brought tears to my eyes and makes me feel as though I am slowly suffocating. I cough and sputter while trying to still remain upright in the surge of the crowd as the world spins slowly around me.

Bodies were slamming together, high class bystanders were running away, even going as far to attempt to climb the stands and buildings to get away.

They didn't make it far as they were being pulled down and murdered by the lower class.

Right as I reached one of the guards, he pulls me harshly towards the carriage and shoves me inside. He yells something to his fellow men, but that was before he was jerked back by a rioter.